Voices for Health Equity

Alexa Norton is a fifth-year doctoral candidate at UBC conducting research on the contextual forces that shape the present and future of safe and regulated drugs in BC (“safer supply”). Alexa was raised in Treaty 8 territory (Grande Prairie, AB) and moved to unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Coast Salish territories in 2010. She is a research associate at the First Nations Health Authority and the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria. 

From emergency measure to political lightning rod: Lessons from prescribed safer supply. 

Amid ongoing debates about the toxic drug crisis and public health responses, Dr. Alexa Norton traces how prescribed safer supply shifted from an emergency measure to a controversial public issue.  

Her talk unpacks the forces that shaped the current landscape — from evolving public narratives to the strategic use of information and misinformation — illustrating how these dynamics have often obscured real-world experiences and influenced policy decisions and public perception. Her work offers insight into the broader implications for health equity, evidence‑informed practice, and the future of harm‑reduction strategies.

Amin Adibi is a research scientist and a Ph.D. candidate at UBC, working on bias and fairness in algorithms used in pulmonary medicine. Amin was raised in the mountains of Western Iran and finished a Master of Science in biomedical engineering at the University of Calgary, before moving to the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh in 2015. He is a co-organizer of the Machine Learning for Health Symposium, a senior collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease study, and an advisory committee member for the Global Lung Function Initiative. 

Of Racism, Algorithms, and Lungs: The Missing Voices 

In this talk, Amin Adibi traces the history of how lung function testing was weaponized to justify slavery and racial hierarchies throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and how its legacy continues to shape medical practice today. Even as health care organizations have moved to change race-specific practices, patients and equity-denied communities have been largely left out of those decisions.  

Drawing on case studies from a range of health care contexts, Amin explores how well-intentioned decisions can create new harms when patient and community voices are excluded and highlights the lessons this history holds for promoting a more equitable use of algorithms, including AI tools, in health care.   

Logan Burd, MPH (she/her), is Métis and a proud Citizen of Métis Nation British Columbia. Logan is an uninvited guest on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Peoples. Logan is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies – Community Engagement, Social Change, and Equity program. Her doctoral research explores how Métis youth conceptualize life promotion and how Métis youths’ understandings can inform upstream youth suicide prevention. She is also a Graduate Fellow in the Equity Science Lab, co-directed by Dr. Sana Shahram and Dr. Katrina Plamondon and the Research Coordinator for the CLARITY Collaborative. Logan is grateful to be involved as a youth member on the Ooma La Michinn Youth Leadership Kinship circle, Atooshkayahk aansaamb chi kiikayhk (working together to heal) committee and the Métis Health and Wellness Experience circle hosted through Métis Nation British Columbia.

Centering Métis Youth Voices: Reimagining Youth Suicide Prevention 

Grounded in her doctoral research and community-based work, Logan Burd explores how including youth voices and knowledge in upstream youth suicide prevent and life promotion efforts can increase equity and inclusivity. Her talk examines the limitations of past and current suicide research, both in general and as it relates to Métis youth, highlighting how dominant approaches have often overlooked Métis-specific experiences, strengths, and ways of knowing. 

By centering Métis youth voices, Logan illustrates how upstream suicide prevention and life promotion can shift towards a more culturally responsive and community‑driven practice, re-framing the work from a focus on risk and deficit to one grounded in connection, culture, and life promotion. 

Rachel Stern

Rachel N. Stern (she/her) is a geographer and researcher, focused on extreme heat, housing justice, and aging. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Geography at UBC, co-supervised by Mohammed Rafi Arefin (Geography) and Leila Harris (IRES). Her research focuses on seniors’ experience of extreme heat in rental and co-operative housing in Vancouver, specifically using interviews, focus groups, and written methodologies to better understand the politics of indoor heat. Her work is community-engaged and she works closely with a number of organizations, including the South Vancouver Seniors Network. More broadly, Rachel is interested in the role of memory politics, storytelling, oral histories, and arts-based methodologies in understanding experiences of extreme heat and climate change. Her work is supported by the UBC Public Scholars Initiative, funding the “Sensing Heat” project, her collaboration with co-researcher and fellow Ph.D. Candidate, Katherine White. 

Katherine White

Katherine White is a PhD Candidate at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, where she previously completed her MSc in Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. Her work examines the impacts of extreme heat on older adult health, with a focus on issues of health equity. Katherine recently completed a CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship with the Government of Manitoba where she quantified the increased rate of mortality and morbidity during periods of extreme heat and identified the individual and neighbourhood characteristics of those most at risk. 

The Sensing Heat Project: Understanding Older Adults’ Lived Experiences of Indoor Heat through Interdisciplinary Social Science and Public Health Approaches 

Vancouver is increasingly contending with the threat of extreme heat, with events such as the 2021 heat dome disproportionately affecting the elderly, disabled, and economically marginalized. As academics, planners, and policy-makers seek to understand the health equity dimensions of extreme heat, it becomes increasingly important to understand how lived experiences connect with technological approaches to heat. The Sensing Heat project, co-created by Ph.D. candidates Rachel Stern (UBC Geography) and Katherine White (UBC SPPH), uses temperature sensors, weather journals, and interviews to explore older adults’ experiences of indoor heat. In this presentation, we will highlight initial insights from this project. We will discuss how our project participants experience indoor heat, understand, and relate to temperature as a measure, and form their daily lives and routines around heat within their homes. This project contributes to new interdisciplinary methodologies for health equity by exploring how lived experiences of heat can be documented and planned for in more just ways. 

Zeba Khan is a proud Bangladeshi and PhD student based in Vancouver. Her doctoral research explores how youth navigate access to care for period pain. Zeba is also the founder of Free Periods Canada, a grassroots non-profit advancing menstrual equity through youth-led education, policy advocacy, and systems-level engagement. 

She is passionate about community-driven research, with a focus on improving access to care for equity-deserving populations. Through both academic and community channels, Zeba is committed to reshaping how health systems respond to the needs of young people and those who menstruate. Zeba is an award-winning scholar and community advocate, and holds the prestigious Vanier and Killam doctoral scholarship. 

Period Pain Is Real Pain: Co-designing a Digital Tool with Youth to Advance Period Health Equity 

Globally, up to 95% of people who menstruate experience period pain, and for many, it is a monthly challenge that disrupts daily life, school, and work. While over‑the‑counter medicines and self‑care help most people manage, period pain can sometimes signal something more serious and  limited access to clear information often prevents people from seeking support.  

In this talk, Zeba Khan tells the story of creating the youth‑focused website and social media campaign Period Pain is Real Pain, exemplifying how sharing health information in an accessible, trustworthy way can advance health equity. She highlights how co‑designing tools and resources with communities and people with lived experience can empower young people to understand their symptoms, advocate for their health, and access the care they need.